Inspiration blog

The Experience Brands Weekly #135

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Data mining in the age of the image

A new report launched by Marketing Week highlights an important issue for those of us who use social media data in our work: the increasing volume of social conversation that is taking non-linguistic form. The deluge of emojis, GIFs, video and image posts. These formats are harder for social listening tools to crawl in search of the behavioural and psychographic data we use as part of the foundational insight which fires effective creative.

The report, The Future of Social Insight finds that while social media use is rocketing – up 21% from 2015 – people are increasingly likely to choose minimal forms of expression. A picture says a thousand words, as they say.

And while the multi-million industry founded on these insights scrabbles to develop its technologies with AI stepping in to analyse imagery and emojis subjected to sentiment analysis (with the usual caveats on the British sport of sarcasm), those of us that use the software might point out there’s still a long way to go on textual analysis, let alone image recognition.

In reality, we find social listening to be a very effective qualitative source of data – particularly useful in unlocking and validating a creative planner’s hunch to cement powerful creative insights. At RPM we’re frequently in search of validation for ideas that will impact culture in meaningful ways; that can unlock the passions and participation of audiences who will engage with a digital platform or have their imagination captured by an event.

But this is a painstaking task of hypothesizing, researching, adjusting hypotheses, researching again and simply reading a LOT of content. People’s passions – whether these be food, sport, niche music sub-genres or anything else that quickens the pulse - are being assailed daily by brands claiming to have something to give their cultures. For a brand, the difference between being loved and simply being yet more digital noise depends on identifying the things that represent true value for participants in these worlds.

The wider trend is a move away from the generic assumptions of demographic segmentation to study dynamic behavioural commonalities that unite people regardless of gender, age, ethnicity and other demographic boxes. After all, screaming from the pages of any trend report you care to pick up are tribes who buck the trend for their age or social status. Instead, we increasingly see groups who chose to live according to a set of rules formed through their social allegiances.

OTHER BITES

Legoland saves parents from incessant “are we there yet?” questioning

Legoland Florida are ensuring that every step of the theme park experience is enjoyable for families, including the journey there, with the development of a mobile GPS game. ‘Quest to Legoland’ has been created to entertain and educate kids on the journey to the theme park. Popular Lego minifigures like Captain Brickbeard and the Good Knight embark on the journey that is mapped in real-time using GPS. Different missions, games and quizzes occur at different check points along the route, as well as fun trivia about the local areas that are passed through. A really smart way to begin providing a great experience for visitors, before they even reach the gates!

Napajiri reveals new line behind mysterious doors

Pitti Uomo is one of the world's most important platforms for men's clothing and accessories, taking place twice a year in Florence. Lots of brands reveal new lines at the exhibition, making it difficult to break through the noise. Napajiri, however, looked beyond the walls of the fortress where the exhibition is held and into the wider city in order to launch their new F/W Collection. The brand created 5 mysterious doors around the city, each one providing a different experience for adventure seekers to engage with and discover a jacket from the new line. A giant installation provided clues as to where to find the mysterious doors and the “Secret Collection”. Those who engaged with the hunt were led to an unexpected concert in the middle of the city, where they were treated to music by Woodkid.

A truly intriguing collection launch that stood out from the rest of the launches at this major exhibition. It also stayed true to the brand and their belief in outdoor discovery.